I GAME, THEREFORE I AM

Thursday, March 15, 2012

The war for Earth, nay ALL LIFE has begun! Mass Effect 3 has hit shelves with a vengance selling more than 3.5 million copies before the first week was out! That means the aggressive marketing plan worked! I have never seen a bigger push for a launch than for ME3. And it truly was a worthy title. I had my N7 Edition in my hands at midnight, and by 12:10am, it was in my 360. I could hardly stand it! Six years, three games, novels, comic book series, and it all came down to this. The reapers are here and, as usual, it's up to Shepard to save the galaxy.

Aaron Shepard, an Earthborn war hero and Alliance Soldier was my first Shepard. A no-nonsense gunslinger who put the galaxy's best interest above his own. This is how my journey into the Mass Effect universe began. It was the original Mass Effect that got me into gaming to begin with. The story grabbed me and pulled me in. The characters were flawed and believable. You actually cared about them! He was my first Shepard, and I was going to finish his fight. I made the choices, now I was going to reap the consequences.

The game starts off like the demo started(this time with all your choices imported!). As Shepard is forced to leave Earth in order to save it, you must create alliances, broker peace and make more hard choices. Who do you ally with? If you help over here, will you lose support over there? Oh yeah, and watch out for the Reapers!!

This game is graphically beautiful! The textures are wonderfully rendered, and the level layouts are masterful! The sound is spectacular. With a soundtrack by Clint Mansell with Chris Lennertz, Chris Velasco, Sam Hulick and Sasha Dikicyan, you cannot go wrong. It is both epic and emotional. Then there is the voice work. Mark Meer does a fantastic job of portraying BroShep, while the always spectacular Jennifer Hale shines again as FemShep. Follow that with excellent work by Ali Hillis, Seth Green, Martin Sheen, and Keith David. The voice work is perfect. That's it. End of story. Perfect.

Add to all this awesomeness co-op multiplayer! Not just multiplayer, but GOOD multiplayer that actually rewards you for playing! You don't have to play the co-op to beat the game and get the best ending, but it helps! Plus, it's awesome!!

This review is spoiler free. Saying that, I have to say this about the much bitched about ending. I LIKED IT! I am very satisfied by the ending my Shepard earned. That's all I will say.